Aram
Aram (also known as The Foreigner) is a powerful Witch-King, who once ruled the African land of Pwenet over 10,000 years ago and the former host of The Darkness. Once the Darkness leaves his body, Aram spends the next 10,000 years in search of a way to kill the being once and for all. Biography Early Life Over 10,000 years ago Aram was born in the African land of Pwenet. As he grew up, Aram joined a tribe of powerful witches who taught him their mystic arts. With these abilities, Aram became a formidable warlord. Seeing this, the Darkness chose him as the its new host. With the Darkness powers at his disposal, Aram won the war against the united tribes of The Seven Steppes and took their lands for himself. On this quest, he kills thousands of men, women and children. Eventually his actions caught up with him and realizing how many lives he destroyed in the name of the Darkness, Aram decides to never use it's power again. Aram then proceeds to sit on the ground for all eternity until the Darkness leaves his body. Infuriated, the Darkness curses Aram to forever wander the world until he lets in the Darkness back into himself. The Foreigner After the Darkness left Aram, he started to wander the Earth, looking for a way to kill the Darkness permanently. About 8,000 years after casting out The Darkness, he encountered and killed a powerful Djinn created by an angry Sorcerer who's wife was sexually defiled by a wielder of The Darkness. At some point he also encounters the Sovereign. Meeting Jackie Estacado As Jackie Estacado encountered the Woman with a Red Ribbon, Aram approached him. He says that he's too been once bewitched by the woman with a red ribbon just like Jackie is now as he was once a Darkness wielder just like him now. Not seeing resemblance to Estacado's in Aram, Jackie doesn't believe him and decides to search for the woman. Aram smacks him with his staff and the two begin to fight. Aram tells that long ago, before the world was named, one of their predecessors took up with the comely wife of a powerful wizard. The wizard created a powerful Djinn that killed not only The Darkness wielder who had defiled his wife, but any subsequent wielders who might someday stumble across his path. An effigy of the wizard's wife, hair bound by a blood red ribbon, lured many Darkness wielders to their deaths at the hands of of the Djinn. In all history only Aram was able to defeat the Djinn. But the Djinn's curse was so potent that even his decayed remains will rise to strike at such as them. Aram ends by saying that Jackie should be careful. Jackie questions him why is he telling Estacado all this information. Aram answers that no one should habe privilege of killing Jackie, but him. He then proceeds to disappear. After Jackie defeats the Djinn, Aram meets him again. Aram reveals that he doesn't want to kill Jackie, but The Darkness itself. He tells that he knows about the Sovereign as eventually every Darkness wielder comes to know him. Aram continues by revealing that Jackie never died in Sierra Muñoz. In reality the Sovereign lied and tricked Jackie into serving him, so he could torment Estacado. Jackie also didn't lost his powers, instead he's been subconsciously suppressing them. To prove this, Aram beats him with a stick, until Jackie fully activates his powers and envelops in Darkness armour. Jackie then attacks Aram and the two begin to fight. During the fight Aram realises that maybe Jackie is meant to end the Darkness once and for all. He then proceeds to disappear. Hunter-Killers During Jackie's encounter with the Hunter-Killers, Aram comes and saves him by knocking out Trinh a member of the team. Aram reveals that he was too a Darkness wielder like Estacado, before he managed to cast off the Darkness ten thousand years ago. But he realised that was a mistake as the Darkness found new wielders who began to plague the mankind. Since that day Aram has been waiting for someone like Jackie, who could kill the Darkness, as it must be done from inside. He then says that if Jackie wants to escape from his hunters, he will need an army of himself. War with The Darkness After the defeat of the Sovereign, Aram met with Jackie, wanting to warn him, that the Darkness is preparing to deal with him and find a new host. Jackie disregards his warnings and walks away. In order to prepare for a coming battle with the Darkness, Aram goes to retrieve the Crystallized Gauntlet from the encounter with the Alkonost and the Sun Dagger. Aram then travels to Omaha, which is now overrun with the undead created by the Darkness virus. He goes on top of the highest skyscraper and oversees the situation in the city. Jackie's Clone then approaches him. The clone explains his origins to Aram and questions his motives for being in the city. Aram draws out the Sun Dagger and explains that he's here to watch the final battle between Jackie and the Darkness. As Jackie and Elle made their way through the city, they were found by Aram, who gave Jackie the piece of hand armor that was crystallized by the Alkonost's tear. He warns Jackie to use this weapon only as his last resort. The building was then attacked by Jackie's clone and he and Elle jumped out as Elle summoned all her and Jackie's offspring. Jackie's clone killed all the offspring and set his sights on Jackie. After a marine helicopter is crashed on top of the clone and Jackie himself, Elle comforted and tended to Jackie as he walked out of the flames. Elle was swiftly sliced in half by Jackie's sister, Capris Castiglione. As she dies, she urges Aram to cancel out the Darkness in order to help Jackie. He did as he was told and touched Elle's hand, disintegrating her to dust. Cancelling the Darkness weakens and ages Aram. Meanwhile, Jackie uses this opportunity to kill Capris with his Crystallized Gauntlet. Aram then gives Jackie the Sun Dagger and reveals that if he wants to completely destroy the Darkness, he needs to kill himself and go to its realm to confront it. Jackie can't bring himself to take his own life and Aram leaves, saying that eventually he will do it. Rise of the Doppelganger After a feud with Jenny, Jackie decides to contact Aram so he would help him to get rid of the Darkness. Aram accepts to help him, but warns Jackie that it will be a difficult task. They meet at Jackie's personal panic room. Jackie then tries to summon the Darkness, but fails to do it. Even after receiving beating from Aram, the Darkness doesn't emerge. Aram then reminds Jackie that after he dies, the Darkness will go to Hope. This angers Jackie and he manages to finally summon the Darkness. He then proceeds to spit out the Darkness out of his body. Aram then grabs Jackie and forces out the last bit of the Darkness. This cause both Jackie and Aram to lose consciousness. The Darkness then slips out of Jackie and forms substitute vessel looking exactly like Estacado. As Jackie wakes up he sees the Doppelganger before him, stopped by Aram. Aram has put a binding spell on the bunker causing the Doppelganger to be trapped in it during the day. The Doppelganger calms down Jackie, saying that he will cooperate with him and he likes their family therefore he won't screw it up. As for Aram he warns that one day he will devour his soul. Before leaving, Aram warns Jackie to be care full of the Doppelganger. Later, Aram visits Valko Balakov, who decides to alliance with him in order to kill the Darkness. Jackie then goes to his house and contacts Aram through a goblet full of blood, asking him to help take back the Darkness. Aram refuses. He then informs Balakov that Jackie is going to send the Darkness after him. Balakov isn't scared saying that he's much older and powerful then the Darkness, Witchblade or the Angelus. When the Doppelganger infiltrates Balakov's home, he's weakned by Aram's presence. Aram explains to Balakov that the Doppelganger isn't Jackie, but an entity created by the Darkness. Balakov then confronts the Doppelganger, but the latter unleashes the Darkness and summons Darklings to aid him. Balakov in response shoots out tentacles out of his body. The Doppelganger asks what is he and Aram explains that when he was a witch-king, he drew his power from the last traces of the powers that held sway before the Darkness existed. The entities were known as the Ancient Ones and Balakov is one of them. The two then begin to fight. Moments later, Jackie arrives at house, were he's met by Aram. He reveals that Balakov is possessed by an ancient being that pre-dates the Darkness itself known as the Ancient One. At the moment he's fighting with the Doppelganger. Aram then asks Jackie what did he do to bring the Ancient Ones back as they were banished long ago. During their fight, the Doppelganger and Balakov fall through ceiling, were they meet Jackie and Aram. Jackie immediately shoots Balakov in the head, knocking him out. As Aram checks on Balakov, the latter recovers and regenerates back his head. Balakov then reveals that more Ancients Ones are coming to Earth. Aram asks him how did he manage to return back to Earth. Balakov says that the barriers that guarded the portals to this world have weakened. Balakov then offers possessing Aram's body, but the latter rejects. Aram then asks why did he came to America and Balakov answers that the source of disturbance in the world is located in Erewhon, Jackie's home and that's where he will go after he recovers. After Balakov recovers he travels to Erewhon, were he kills Jackie's guards guarding the house. Balakov then locates the source of disturbance in the world, which turns out to be Jenny herself. As he proceeds to touch her, he's stopped by Hope in her Darkness form who proceeds to attack him. Balakov eventually manages to subdue her, but Jackie and Aram come to help her. He expresses that one day, Hope will be far greater than Jackie ever was. The Doppelganger then comes through a portal and then confronts Balakov. Suddenly, Jenny awakes and is terrified by the people in the room. Aram calms her down by using hypnosis on her, causing her to relive the best moment in her life. As Jackie is in no fit to fight, Aram orders him to take care of Jenny. Balakov then calms down both the Doppelganger and Hope, saying that it was Jenny who opened the portals to his home and invited him into this world. Not believing what Balakov has said, Hope attacks him. The Doppelganger quickly calms her down as he and Aram wants to find out more about this disturbance created by Jenny's existence. Balakov explains that the world was destroyed and Jackie used her daughter to recreate it as she was the codex of this universe. But differently from the old world in this new world Jenny was not only alive, but also the mother of Hope. Bringing her back to life altered the nature of the universe and caused Ancient One portals to open up. Balakov then adds that Hope's real mother was Sara Pezzini. They're then interrupted by Charlotte and Jackie's personal guards who inform the Doppelganger that somebody killed two men from his security team. The Doppelganger says that everything is fine and sends them away. Back in the bedroom, Balakov announces to make an alliance with the Doppelganger as the Ancient Ones are the Darkness ancestors. The Doppelganger asks Aram if he will too join this alliance, but realizes that he already left the room. Aram then appears behind Jackie and confronts him for what he did to the universe. He reveals that because Jenny is a construct, Hope is now pure Darkness. They're then attacked by Balakov and the Doppelganger. Balakov quickly incapacitates Aram, but the latter manages to teleport away. The Keeper Having transported himself outside the house, into the garden, Aram forms a sphere of solitude around him. This banishes all sound and life around him. He then focuses and views what happening in the house by using the reflective surface in it. Aram sees screaming Jackie being dragged away by the Darklings trough a portal. On another surface, he sees the Doppelganger infecting Jackie's bodyguards with the Darkness virus. He also sees Hope dismiss her nanny Charlotte, that saves her from being infected too. Aram prays that Hope did it out of loyalty to her nanny. If she is capable of kindness, then a spark of humanity must still be alive in her. After seeing all this, Aram realizes that he will need help in defeating this new threat. He contacts Tom Judge and Tilly Grimes, and informs them about the anomaly in Erewhon. Aram then proceeds to travel to Veliko, Bulgaria in search of the Keeper that was guarding Balakov's heart. As he arrives, he finds the Keepers shop to be closed. A woman standing outside tells him, that the shop has been closed for months. The shops owner is gone and her granddaughter now runs it. The women reveals that the new owner has been taking young men to her shop, including her's fiancé Pavel. She tells Aram that whatever Pavel has been doing with shop's owner, its slowly killing him. Aram then decides to enter the shop himself. Inside he finds the chest that should contain Balakov's heart, but instead contains a heart that belongs to someone else. He then breaks down the doors that leads deeper into the shop and finds a young woman having an orgy with four young men. Aram asks her where is Balakov's heart and the women in return sends the men after him. He quickly defeats the men and then asks the woman where is the Keeper. As the woman smiles, Aram realises that not only is she the Keeper, she also exchanged her heart with Balakov's in order to become younger. The Keeper tries to convince Aram to let her keep the heart, but he doesn't listen to her and takes out the heart. As she begins to die, the Keeper is forced to take her old heart back. With the old heart in her chest, she turns back to a crone. The Keeper then turns to the young men and asks one of them give their heat to her so she could become young again. Aram stops her and orders the Keeper to let them go. When Pavel gets outside, he's hugged by his fiancé. As he leaves with the heart, Aram tells the two lovers that if they really love each other they will never talk about what happened here. Taking Back The Darkness As Aram returns to Erewhon, he's confronted by the Doppelganger. Aram reveals, that he have obtained the Mask of Mana from a Tohunga exorcist in New Zealand. While wearing the mask, the exorcist can contain the demon without being possessed by it and then transfer to a new host. Although the Doppelganger and the Cathead are sceptical, Aram puts on the mask and then terminates his protection against the Darkness. He then invites the Darkness into himself, much to the Doppelgangers objections. As the Darkness takes over Aram, he announces it now belongs to him. With the Darkness in his possession, Aram summons his Darklings. The Darklings surround Jackie and the Doppelganger and prepare to kill them. Aram calls Jackie weak and unworthy of this power. When one of the Darklings tries to lick the Doppelganger, he cuts his tongue off. Realising that without the Doppelganger he's incomplete, Aram tries to absorb him. The Doppelganger pleads Jackie to do something and Jackie tries to convince Aram to let go of the Darkness. He says that the Estacado bloodline is the perfect host for the Darkness as a corrupt man cannot be corrupted. Jackie then swears that if Aram gives back to him the Darkness, he will stop the Ancient Ones and restore the balance between Darkness and light. Aram's Darklings then try to convince him into keeping the Darkness for himself and take over the world. Remembering how much pain and destruction he brought to the world as the Darkness host, Aram gives it to Jackie. The Doppelganger then assumes his true form as small Darkling and merges with Jackie. With the Darkness back in his possession, Jackie destroys the Mask of Mana and tells Aram to get out of his sight. Before leaving, Aram warns Jackie to not trust the Ancient Ones. Darkness Falls With the imminent danger of the Ancient Ones, Aram brought Sara Pezzini to Erewhon, secretly planning to use her in order to kill Jackie and the Darkness once and for all. As Sara confronts Jackie, they're equal and can't kill each other. Aram then steps in and gives Sara a magical blade, forged at the dawn of human kind by a powerful sorcerer. Armed with the blade and furious at Jackie for corrupting Hope, Sara proceeds to decapitated him. Aram then uses an ancient incantation, which combined with sword and the Witchblade, banishes the Darkness forever from Earth. With Jackie and the Darkness now gone, Aram reassures Sara, that he will take care both Jenny and Hope. As she leaves, Jenny and Hope expresses their anger aimed at Sara for killing Jackie. Aram then calms them both down, revealing that once the time is right, he will use a special incantation to kill her too. Personality Aram is calm, calculated and incredibly wise. Living for over ten thousands years, Aram accumulated a vast knowledge about both the Darkness and the supernatural world. After committing numerous atrocities as the host of the Darkness, he committed his life for the search to find a way to kill the Darkness permanently, no matter the cost. Powers & Abilities Powers * Immortality: Aram was cursed with immortality by the Darkness. He is over 10,000 years old and maintains the appearance and health of a middle-aged man just past his prime. Witch Powers Before the Darkness awoke within him, Aram belonged to a tribe of powerful witches. * Elemental Manipulation: Aram is a powerful witch with control over many elements of nature. * Exorcism: Through meditation, Aram drove most of the Darkness spirit from his body. * Blood Ritual Communication: Using ritualistic human sacrifice and pouring the blood into a goblet, Aram could communicate with anyone he chose. * Darkness Vanquishing: Aram can vanquish or "cancel out" any Darkling, Darkness construct, or Darkness armor in his presence, no matter how powerful it might be. * Superhuman Strength: Though not in the same league as a Darkness vessel, Aram is noticeably stronger than an average human. * Superhuman Speed: Aram can move faster than the eye can see. * Superhuman Agility: Aram's agility, balance, flexibility, and dexterity is inhuman. * Levitation: Aram claimed, that he could levitate, although this is never shown. * Hypnotism: Aram can hypnotise others. He used this ability on Jenny, when she started to panic after seeing Balakov, empowered Hope and Doppelganger in her room. This caused her to relive the best moment in her life. * Discorporation: Aram can appear to other in a ghost-like state, without being physical there. * Apportation: Aram can teleport inanimate objects and/or beings from one location to another. * Remote Viewing: Aram could use any reflective surface in certain area in order to see what was happening there, without ever setting foot there. When he escapes Erewhon, he used this ability in order to see what was happening in the house. * Sphere of Solitude: Aram can create a sphere, which banishes all sound and life around him. He used this ability so he could better focus. Darkness Powers * Darkness: As the host of the Darkness, Aram had access to whole its power. ** Darkness Armor: He could fashion armor to protect himself. *** Invulnerability: The armor made him impervious to bodily harm. *** Increased Strength: The armor increased his strength to equal that of an empowered Darkness host. ** Darkling Summoning: Aram could summon whole legions of Darklings from the shadows to smite whole armies. Abilities * Master Martial Artist: Aram is master of various martial arts and is proficient in close-quarter combat. His combat prowess lets Aram to overpower even empowered individuals like Jackie or fight multiple opponents at once. * Occult Knowledge: Having lived for 10,000 years, Aram has knowledge about various ancient relics, rituals and creatures. Trivia * Aram's original Darkness armor bears similarities to Cthulhu from H.P. Lovecraft mythos. * Aram is the oldest human character to ever appear in The Darkness comics. ** He's also the second oldest Darkness wielder to appear in the comics. Gallery Outerd42.jpg|Aram in his youth. Outerd48.jpg|Aram killing orphans. Outerd57.jpg|The Darkness cursing Aram. Djinn14.jpg|Aram meeting with Jackie. Trinh10.jpg|Aram fighting with Trinh. Outerd54.jpg|Aram coming to Omaha. Rabbitwhite39.jpeg|Aram fighting his opponents. Thedoppel32.jpg|Aram communicating through a goblet full of blood. Thedoppel64.jpeg|Aram taking back the Darkness. Thedoppel5.jpg|Aram's Darklings. Thedoppel19.jpg|Aram trying to absorb the Doppelganger. Category:Comics Characters Category:Comic Males Category:Supernatural Category:Human Category:Darkness Host Category:Immortals